BR 

115 
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1 



DISCOURSE 
UPON GOVERNMENTS, 

DIVINE AND HUMAN, 

PREPARED BY APPOINTMENT 

OF THE PRESBYTERY OF HARMONY, 

AND DELIVERED BEFORE THAT BODY DURING ITS SESSIONS IN INDIANTOWN 
CHURCH, WILLIAMSBURG DISTRICT, S. C, APRIL, 1853, BY THE 

REV, J; C. COIT, 

AH) PUBLISHED BY EEQUEST OF THE PRESBYTERY. 



COLUMBIA, S. C: 
PRINTED BY T. F. GRENEKER. 

1853. 



4$ 






Y-1 



DISCOURSE 



••The Lord liatli prepared His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom ruleth 
ow all."— Psalms 108: VX 

Creation was the first manifestation of Deity. " In the be- 
ginning God created the heavens and the earth." When He had 
finished these works, He blessed them, rested ; and has created 
nothing since His Sabbath. He then prepared His throne of 
dominion in the heavens, and thenceforward His kingdom has 
been supreme over all. 

What is written in Scripture concerning the creation and gov- 
ernment of man, reveals all that we can learn of the ultimate 
laws and immutable principles of the kingdom of God. We shall 
rely upon that record for the data in our investigations concerning 
the governments of God and man. 

The first two chapters of Genesis contain the principal revela- 
tions concerning the natural creation and its laws. 

These we shall first consider. 

Every being and thing was created good and perfect of its 
kind ; and, when made, was upheld in its being, functions, life or 
happiness, by the continuance of creative power. This continued 
energy of divine power is law. Law is spiritual, material, mental 
or moral — in other words, it is free and sovereign ; or natural and 
necessary according to the nature of the object — the creature — 
but always perfect according to the nature of the subject — the 
Creator — the word of God. 

Creation was a reflection of the goodness, wisdom, and power 
of the Creator. Especially did the sun, moon and stars reveal 
to man the stupendous number and immensity, the heavenly beauty 
and harmony, of the works of God. These revolving spheres of 



4 A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 

light measured by their motions the mysteries of time and space, 
from the minujest portions to those amazing cycles that stretch 
upon the hazy borders of infinity. 

Man was created a male and a female ; the male from the dust, 
the female from the rib of the male, — one flesh, one person in 
the eye of the law, and called Adam. 

The woman was made for man, and not the man for the woman. 

Adam was created in the image of God, and invested with a 
delegated dominion over all the earth, and over all its creatures. 
Placed in Eden, all his capacities of soul and body for virtue, 
dignity and happiness, were invited by objects adapted to his 
nature to be filled with the peace, security, joys and glories of 
Paradise. Within was light, life, and bliss; and without were 
order, beauty, music, and fragrance. Had the highest end of 
man's creation been to display the natural goodness, wisdom, and 
power of the Creator, in man's happiness as a creature, that was 
fully accomplished in Eden. 

God, however, had a higher end in view than man's natural 
welfare ; and therefore prepared His throne of sovereign domin- 
ion in the heaven, and declared to Adam the. law of that kingdom 
which ruleth over all. 

Man, considered as a mere creature, subjected to the laws of 
creation, was in a condition of natural dependence, without sov- 
ereign, personal liberty, or legal responsibility. It pleased God, 
therefore, to endow him with the prerogatives of sovereign do- 
minion and liberty, and to put him under sovereign law. For 
man was not only created naturally good, and endowed with mental 
and moral powers, but he received the gift of spiritual life, by 
the inspiration of the Almighty, and became a living soul — a 
partaker of the divine nature — a son of God. His spirit was 
invested with sovereignty of will, and with dominion over every 
thing and being that was created upon the earth, in the sea, and 
in the air. Nevertheless, the kingdom of God reigned over all ; 
and man, as a sovereign, was put under the sovereign law of the 
supreme Ruler. 

The law for the free spirit, the sovereign will of man, was the 
objective word of God sup ernatur ally revealed. 



A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 5 

"God commanded the man, saying: Of every tree in the gar- 
den throumayest freely eat ; but of the tree of knowledge of good 
and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day thou catcst thereof 
thou shalt Btirely die." 

Now, in relation to this law of God, the sovereign and supreme 
Lord, the spirit of man was left actually sovereign. "Man was 
left to the freedom of his own will." 

No oracle in the depths of Adam's own mind, heart, or conscience 
— no divine light within him, discerned that lata. The law of 
the supreme sovereign to the subordinate sovereign was declared 
.dam, not in him. It was revealed to him by the word of su- 
pernatural, objective revelation, not in him by the word of sub- 
jective natural revelation. Man's knowledge of that law come 
by hearing the word of his sovereign Lord. Adam was the 
rated sovereign, in this world, of the King supreme. Since 
the first Sabbath, God's works in this world have not been crea- 
tive, but works of sovereign and supreme legislation — works of 
His governmental dominion, of His truth and justice, of His 
y, patience, wisdom, and holiness ; works of His legal and 
moral power ; works of terror and death to the disobedient, and 
of life, joy, and hope to all who obey His word. For " the Lord 
hath prepared His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom ruleth 
over all." 

Behold the first man in his glory — a son of God, in the natural 
image of his Creator — the sovereign Lord of this world, and 
God's legal representative upon the earth. We may trace the 
divine lineaments in Adams' nature, endowments, and preroga- 
tives. 

1. In the actual and sovereign liberty of his spirit, the free- 
dom and independence of his own will, in relation to sovereign 
law. 

2. In the natural liberty of his will, i. e. in his conformity to 
the laws of his mental and moral constitution, wherein consisted 

piritual life ; for the law of his nature — the subjective word 
of divine inspiration — taught those natural oracles w T ithin him, 
his mind, heart, and conscience, infallibly what was true, good, 
and just, whenever he chose to consult them for wisdom. In na- 



6 A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 

tural liberty the counsel of man's will are his natural mental and 
moral powers. 

3. In his knowledge of his relation to the sovereign law of the 
supreme Ruler. 

4. In his sovereign dominion over this world and all the crea- 
tures, whereby he governed them according to the dictates of his 
own will. 

5. In the power of his word as the expression of his will and 
wisdom, and in the dominion of his word when expressed, which 
was the law for all the living creatures on the earth, in the air, 
and in the waters. These all were what Adam called them. 

6. In the power of his will over those members of his own body, 
that obeyed his act of volition. 

7. In the power of his physical acts, whereby he could subject, 
at pleasure, all the powers of the material world, to his own will : 
for his knowledge in the natures and laws of all creatures, was 
like the knowledge of God. 

8. In the holiness of his spirit, mind, heart and conscience, in 
the perfection of his mental and moral natures. 

9. In his knowledge of God, as his Creator, Father, Benefac- 
tor, Sovereign and Supreme Ruler. 

Man was the sovereign ruler upon earth, though there was 
another King higher than he, for the kingdom of God reignetli 
over all. 

The Lord of lords asserted his sovereignty and rightful supre- 
macy upon earth, by the word of His own mouth. He proclaimed 
to Adam a veto law. In this act of legislation God appeared in 
His official character of King supreme. 

In all natural things, material, mental and moral, the man was 
in subjection to God. In relation to the one point of the veto 
law, was the will of man actually sovereign and independent. 
The malum prohibitum, therefore, was the only transgression 
which Aclam could commit. Immediately, upon Adam's act of 
disobedience, the Spirit of God's word of natural inspiration and 
life, vanished, and left him dead — without divine life or inspira- 
tion — a natural man and a sinner. His relation to sovereign law 
was now that of condemnation, — subjection to its penalty. His 



A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 7 

mental and moral condition "was that of darkness, remorse, fear 
and shame. Spiritually, he was a mere patient sufferer. In this 
condition of sin and misery, with no personal power to remove 
legal condemnation, or to regain spiritual life, he must have re- 
mained forever, were there no new sovereign law, emanating from 
God, for the pardon, resurrection and life of man. The sovereign 
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, is the power of God which 
does free man from the condemnation of the sovereign law of sin 
and death : for the end of the law of man's sovereign liberty is 
his own death; but the end of the law of God's sovereign liberty 
is life everlasting. 

After the offence, God summoned the guilty before his judicial 
tribunal, and proceeded to pronounce judgment according to His 
sovereign law. From these, His works of truth, justice and judg- 
ment, we learn that God is the Judge supreme, the avenger of 
His sovereign law ; and true in executing the threatenings of His 
own word. 

Thus God had revealed himself to man as his Creator, Father, 
Benefactor, Sovereign Ruler and Judge. 

Before transgression, the only conception Adam could have had 
of sin, must have been that of an actual disobedience to the veto 
law of the supreme and sovereign Ruler. The natural notion of 
sin, is, that of an act of free and independent choice, done in vio- 
lation of known law. Adam's sin consisted in choosing and doing 
an act freely against the known sovereign law of the supreme 
Ruler ; when endowed with actual personal liberty of will, freely 
to choose, and with physical power to do, or not to do, the act, 
as he himself should freely choose. From his natural condition 
and relation to sovereign law, such an act was the only trans- 
gression which it was possible for Adam to commit. For whilst 
he rested — as God himself did — in the works and laws of creation, 
and abstained from doing that free and sovereign act of his own, 
which the word of God forbade him to do — whilst his sovereign 
will rested in the truth, justice and sovereign authority of his 
supreme Ruler, he remained under the blessing of his creator and 
had divine and spiritual life : the Spirit of God's word subjec- 
tively dwelling in him, as his natural inspiration and life. 



8 A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 

By occasion of the sovereign law of the objective commandment 
— supernaturally revealed — man was, in that one point, left to the 
freedom of his own will. Upon this — his actual personal liberty 
— hung the possibility of sin ; and also the spiritual dominion and 
sovereign authority of God, the King supreme, over man. 

The act of disobedience, in eating the forbidden fruit, was the 
free and sovereign act of man's own will. It was the act of man, 
the sovereign of himself and of the whole world, against the sove- 
reign law of God, the supreme Ruler. 

No man ever actually committed that offence but one, and he 
but once. 

No mere man but Adam, was ever put under the economy of 
sovereign law and sovereign liberty. 

Adam received his existence and all his endowments by the 
free gift of God's goodness. His rectitude, wisdom and holiness 
by the free and beneficent power of divine inspiration. As a mere 
creature he could have committed no sin, for he was made in 
mind, heart and conscience, in God's own image. The law of 
his natural liberty, was for him to think, feel, choose and act, 
under all possible circumstances, according to the laws of his 
being, happiness and life. His choices were infallibly determined 
by his material, mental, moral and religious instincts ; in love, 
praise and gratitude to God, and in the enjoyment of the crea- 
tures ; always free to act, according to his own desires, and the 
principles of his own nature. All that he could have thought, 
felt, chosen or done — naturally — must have been resolvable 
into effects of the laws of his constitution, or the subjective inspi- 
ration of the word of God. Adam's conscience, therefore, could 
never have accused him of guilt, while acting according to the 
thoughts, affections, emotions and desires of that nature which 
God himself had created, and according to the dictates of that 
wisdom which His word had inspired. 

From the history of the first transgression we learn, that there 
were two contradictory propositions before the mind of Eve. A 
true and a false : the word of God and the word of Satan. These 
propositions were concerning a supernatural, spiritual and divine 
law. The sovereign and supreme law of the Lord God to Adam. 



A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 9 

"Whether God spake to Eve, or she received the law by tradition 
from her husband, does not appear from the record, but from her 
own mouth it is evident that she knew the law. None of the ma- 
terial, mental, moral or religious laws of her constitution were 
ordained to teach her the truth, concerning the supernatural, 
sovereign and spiritual law. The truth, justice and authority of 
that law, were revealed by and depended upon the objective word 
of the Lord God. 

The woman, therefore, was left to the freedom of her own will, 
to believe the truth or a lie — the word of God or the word of 
Satan — she chose the latter, and was first in the transgression. 

That the act of disobedience was her own free act, appears from 
the words of her Judge : " What is this that thou hast done ?" 
Had her plea, of having been deceived by Satan, been a valid 
one, her Judge would have admitted it. 

Hence we learn that responsibility in law attached under the 
primitive economy for unbelief in the word of God and its conse- 
quences. The man was not deceived. There were two distinct 
and contradictory propositions before him. The word of the Lord 
God, and the word of the woman. He obeyed the woman and dis- 
obeyed the Lord. "And to Adam the Lord said, because thou 
hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the 
tree of which I commanded thee, saying, thou shalt not eat of it, 
cursed is the ground for thy sake," &c. 

The Lord had no agency in man's transgression. This whole 
world and all its laws, material, mental and moral, everything that 
was created had been put under the sovereign dominion of man. 
The forbidden fruit was here, yet the physical acts of taking and 
eating it, were acts of man's own voluntary dominion. He trans- 
gressed the sovereign law by his own, free and sovereign act of 
choice, by the independent and self-determining power of his own 
will. 

From the sentences of God the Judge, we learn that He hath 
exalted His own objective word, or law of supreme and sovereign 
dominion, above all created, natural and subjective laws — above 
the happiness, liberty, and life of the creatures. 

From this history we learn, that not the words of Satan, not 



10 A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 

woman's thoughts, perceptions or sentiments, not her voice, nor 
yet man's own will, but the objective word of God sup ernatur ally 
revealed — the sovereign word of God the King, was the only rule 
of faith and practice in supernatural and spiritual things in Para- 
dise ; and that obedience to that law was the condition of man's 
happiness and life. We learn also that even then and there, in 
Eden, when the objective word of God — sup ernatur ally revealed — 
ceased to be the rule and law of faith and practice in supernatu- 
ral and spiritual things, there was no security from Satanic influ- 
ences, self-delusion, and self-destruction. 

We learn further from these judicial proceedings, that God the 
sovereign Ruler is true and just, and that vengeance belongeth 
unto Him. That condemnation and punishment are judicial ef- 
fects of violation of sovereign law ; and that the moral effects of 
transgression are mental and sentimental Confusion, chaos, misery 
and fatal delusions. 

As long as Adam continued in obedience to the sovereign law 
of the Lord God, so long he rested in God's works of creation ; 
so long the word of God, the spirit of divine inspiration in wis- 
dom, rectitude, holiness and happiness dwelt subjectively mman, 
and constituted his divine and spiritual life. This in-dwelling 
word gave infallibility to the laws of Adam's mind, conscience 
and desires, and caused them to conspire in teaching him how to 
choose that which was, naturally or officially, true, just, and good ; 
for the kingdom of God ruled over all. 

When the Lord gave His sovereign law to Adam, Pie did not 
speak in him, but to him : nor yet to the mere creature, but to 
man, the sovereign, an object of spiritual law and liberty; hence 
we learn that all the knowledge of things supernatural and spiri- 
tual, which it was right for Adam to possess, touching " good and 
evil" in law, was this, to wit : that it was good — life — to obey 
the word of the law : and evil — death— to disobey it. 

The commandment to Adam — not to eat of the forbidden fruit 
— was no revelation of God's otvn will, or of the law of His free 
spirit, personal agency, or decrees. The command was the law 
for man, for his free and sovereign will ; for the free spirit of the 
earthly sovereign. 



A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 11 

In giving tliis law to the man, God appeared in His character 
of supreme and sovereign Lord. It was a work of positive 1 

i, "When Adam trai 1 the law, condemnation and 

death were not personal, voluntary, or free aets of God, but the 

1 acts of the Judge of all the earth: they were judicial 
penal acts, the works of divine judgment, justice, and truth. 
Hence we learn that God had decreed to create man in Ilis own 
image ; to invest him with the power and legal responsibilities of 
a will, sovereign and independent ; to give him dominion over the 
earth and all created beings and things in this world, and to 
place him under a supernatural,- spiritual, objective, positive, sov- 
ereign law, that man should himself of his own free and sover- 
eign will and act transgress, and that he should die for his dis- 
obedience. We learn, that though man had great wisdom, felicity, 
rectitude, honor and power, though he was the sovereign lord of 
this world, yet that there was a greater than he, and that the 
kingdom of God reigneth over all. 

In Adam — the prince of this world — in his wisdom, goodness, 
rectitude, dignity, dominion, holiness, liberty and happiness, could 
be manifested no more of the image of God than appeared in 
the created nature, in the gifts and endowments of man. In the 
works of creation and its laws, we see the effects of God's free 
goodness, wisdom, ; sovereignty and power; we behold a display 
of His natural attributes ; but when He prepares His throne in 
the heavens and proclaims His law, He is revealed as the King 
of Kings and the Lord of Lords. 

The goodness, happiness and life of Adam, after the sovereign 
law was declared, were made to depend upon his own voluntary 
obedience to that law— the word of the Lord supernaturally and 
objectively revealed. Adam's life did not depend upon his obe- 
dience to the laws, material, mental, or moral, of his created 
constitution. These subjective laws were, like all the other laws 
of creation on earth, under man's dominion ; they were the ser- 
vants of his will. The mind, heart and conscience of man were 
infallible oracles of wisdom, truth, goodness and rectitude — the 
privy council of Adam, who was himself sovereign lord of all 
the earth and all its creatures. 



12 A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 

The natural laws of mental and moral consciousness in Adam 
were perfect; and his mind, heart and conscience in all their 
operations were true, holy, harmonious and joyful. Yet, as a 
creature, he knew nothing of God but through the media of the 
laws of creation and their phenomena ; his whole created nature 
was in subjection to the spiritual word of the Creator. 

As the sovereign lord of himself and all this world, his relation 
to God the supreme sovereign, was objective, only as respects 
the veto law. The condition of his life was made to depend upon 
his voluntary obedience to a law, paramount to the laws of his na- 
ture, material, mental and moral. He was created good, physi- 
cally, mentally, morally. His nature was good. 

The possibility of sin existed not by reason of any of the laws or 
phenomena of creation, but arose from the imposition by the su- 
preme and sovereign Ruler of a veto law, which Adam was left at 
liberty to violate or obey, according to the free determination of 
his own sovereign will. This freedom was not moral liberty or 
natural liberty. The word of sovereign law, of God the Lord, 
was not within the cognizance of man's mental or moral faculties. 
The liberty was, in its nature, actual and sovereign. Under the 
economy of sovereign law, the will of Adam was not necessarily 
subjected to the will of God. The Lord's word of commandment, 
his objective veto, was the law for Adam as a free agent. The 
self-determining power of his own will, was indispensable to con- 
stitute Adam the proper object of such a law. 

If the choice or act of transgression was produced by motives 
or causes, resolvable into phenomena of creation or its laws, or by 
any force " ah extra" then Adam was not free and independent in 
the act of transgression, it was not his oivn act. 

It was the sovereign will of God, to leave the earthly sovereign 
at perfect liberty to act or not to act, as Tie chose : that man 
should be, not a nominal, but the actual lord of himself and of all 
his dominions. 

In his condition and under such an economy, it was impossible 
for Adam to sin, except by an act of lawless liberty, without any 
motives or causes resolvable into created or natural phenomena, 
and exactly without any invincible motive, subjective or objective 



A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 13 

at all, but by a free, sovereign and independent act of pure rebel- 
lion, against known, supreme, sovereign and positive law. 

The liberty to do an act like this, constituted the independent 
personality of Adam, this prerogative of actual and sovereign 
freedom, constituted "the me," the self of man; for the use of 
such liberty, and for nothing else was he legally responsible. In 
this high and regal endowment, consisted the image of the sove- 
reignty, freedom and dominion of God the King supreme. The 
sovereign man was endowed with a spiritual freedom, subject to 
no law, but that of the command of the Lord God, and even that 
law he was actually at liberty to violate. 

Behold the man after his transgression ! without God and with- 
out hope, in his guilt and nakedness, the miserable victim of fear 
and shame, condemned, dead in law, spiritually dead and ready 
to perish ! 

That internal divine inspiration which had given life, wisdom, 
holiness and infallibility to the mental and moral laws of his con- 
stitution, that subjective, divine word — which was the law of natu- 
ral liberty to man — has vanished from the human temple. Natural 
liberty now is in subjection to man's own imaginations, thoughts, 
emotions, passions and desires. Like the pirate bark amongst 
the breakers, without light or compass, or chart, or pilot, with the 
lawless captain, fastened in irons by a mutinous crew, who are 
contending with each other for the mastery. 

Fallen man — a sinner against God — is ignorant of things, natu- 
rall} r good and evil ; and being deprived of the in-dwelling inspi- 
ration of God's word, all the thoughts, imaginations, affections and 
desires arc — tried by sovereign law and by the natural laws of 
man's original constitution — sinful. 

Adam's own nature became by transgression, "avopia," lawless. 

Formerly there was but one choice he could make, one physi- 
cal act he could do, that was sinful : that choice was supernatu- 
ral, sovereign, spiritual — his own choice — that act was under the 
absolute dominion of his own will — it was his own act. 

Now, there is not one spiritual act of his own will, not one 
mental, moral or physical act he doetli that is not sinful. As to 
his spiritual acts, he is eating of no tree, but that of his own 



14 A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 

knowledge of good and evil, and as to his mental, moral and 
physical acts, comparing the former with the sovereign law, and 
the latter with the original, perfect laws of man's constitution, 
they are all sinful ; for " sin is the transgression of law." 

Adam and Eve, guilty and miserable, are banished from the 
presence and fellowship of their Creator, to their own world, 
which is now with its creatures under the curse of the Lord for 
man's sin. 

The man and woman, learn by experience and by degrees, in 
the thorns and briars, in the barrenness and desolations of the 
wilderness, in storms, thunders and lightnings, by earthquakes 
and volcanoes, from the wildness, insubordination and ferocity of 
the inferior animals and creatures, from the toils and labours of 
the body, its sicknesses and sufferings, from the darkness, doubts, 
disorders and anxieties of the understanding, from the torments of 
conscience, conflict of passions and anguish of spirit ; from do- 
mestic contentions, violence and deaths, something of the effects 
of transgressing the sovereign law of the supreme Ruler — the 
penal effects of an inferior sovereign, eating of the tree of know- 
ledge of good and evil, contrary to the veto law of the highest 
sovereign. 

In the proceedings of judgment, in the cases of Adam and Eve, 
there are intimations of divine power in deliverance from endless 
wrath ; and in the sentence passed upon Satan, we perceive the 
first beams of the day spring from on high, which reveal the grace 
of God in His purpose to destroy the works of sin and Satan, by 
the incarnation of his own eternal Word. 

By one transgression man not only forfeited the self-determin- 
ing power of his own will, but also the natural liberty of his will, 
or that liberty which had consisted in the conformity of his vol- 
untary determinations with the mental, moral and physical laws 
of a perfect and divinely inspired constitution. Being under the 
curse of the law, and no word or seed of divine inspiration within 
him, his legal and natural position made a choice of evils his 
highest voluntary achievement. 

Though his crown of sovereignty was in the dust, man was per- 
mitted by mental and bodily toil, to reclaim some of his original 



A DISCOURSE ITON GOVERNMENTS. 15 

dominion over the laws of nature and over the creatures, to " eat 
his bread by the sweat of his brow." The results of this law are 
conspicuous among Adam's posterity, in the triumph of science, 
mechanics and natural philosophy. This empire is limited to the 
fields of exact scientific or abstract truth and to the Ia%s that arc 
merely natural ; for all the earth and its creatures, being under 
the curse of sovereign law, involves a modification of mental and 
moral laws, by the providence of God, in subordination to His 
supreme kingdom, and in the administration of its affairs, under 
the new economy that sin hath occasioned in this world. 

Thus, from the nature of Adam, the transgressor, was oblitera- 
ted every lineament and shadow of the image of God. Being un- 
godly, man's nature, mentally and morally, became " earthly, 
sensual, devilish." The Lord left him to the freedom of his own 
will, to do as he pleased, and to eat of the tree of his own know- 
ledge of good and evil. 

After the fall, Adam had children. These were not created as 
he had been, but were begotten and born, according to the power 
of the laws of propagation, by which like in nature begets like ; 
laws that were ordained before the first transgression, as were also 
the material, mental and moral laws of man's original constitu- 
tion. 

The effect of Adam's first sin upon his posterity may be con- 
sidered legally, spiritually, physically, mentally and morally. 

All are born babes, and when born, what relation do they bear 
to that sovereign and supreme law of liberty, of life, and of death, 
which Adam violated ? That enquiry calls for a truth, supernat- 
ural, spiritual and divine. We are shut up, therefore, to the 
supernatural, objective word of divine revelation for all the 
knowledge we can obtain upon the subject. Such knowledge must 
come by hearing, and that the hearing of the word of God. 

1. That word testifies that all Adam's natural posterity are 
born under the condemnation of that law, subject to its penalty, 
and that, too, before any personal or actual transgression ©f their 
own. In other words that they are born guilty of death, bodily, 
spiritually, eternally. 

This condemnation is not by an arbitrary act, nor by a positive 



16 A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 

ordinance or appointment, resolvable merely into the sovereignty 
of the Lord. It is not a free or voluntary act of His will. It 
is a judicial act. Condemnation passes upon all when born, ac- 
cording to His sovereign law and His judgment, whose law and 
whose judgment is according to His own justice and His own 
truth. Five times in one chapter does the word of God declare 
the truth and the fact of this judgment of condemnation. This 
is not condemning others for the sin of one, between whom there 
was no relation in law or by nature. Adam stood a sovereign 
under the sovereign law of the supreme Ruler — the type and 
legal representative, the federal as well as the natural head of 
his posterity. His sin therefore against sovereign law was, in 
legal contemplation, the sin of every one of them. In the eye 
of the law, they themselves " sinned in him and fell with him in 
his first transgression." 

What Scripture affirms as true of man, is not predicated of the 
individual only, but of the genus. A general proposition is logi- 
cally expressed in an exact and scientific formula of the abstract 
and not of the concrete, of the truth and not of facts. Facts 
may prove the existence of laws that underlie them, and which 
are the causes or occasions of the phenomena of actuality. Thus 
much of the legal effects of Adam's first transgression. 

2. What are the spiritual effects ? The spirit of God's truth, 
wisdom, and of life is not in man as his spirit of inspiration. 
Man is left to the freedom of his own will and spirit. The sov- 
ereign dominion of man's will is forfeited and gone, and the na- 
tural liberty of his will is subverted. Instead of governing him- 
self according to the counsel of his will, — the cabinet — his privy 
counsellors — have usurped the royal authority ; his own thoughts, 
passions and desires are in the ascendancy. These are the ruling 
powers. The lawful king is governed by his personal flatterers, 
favorites and parasites ; and his freedom consists in his actually 
choosing and delighting in such a degrading condition. The royal 
liberty of the lawful sovereign is gone. In lawless liberty, his actual 
rulers indulge him ad libitum. In brief, the free spirit is in 
bondage to the sinful nature. 

A babe when born discovers that it has a sovereign, a reigning 



A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 17 

will : but its natural and lawful counsellors — the mind, heart and 
conscience — are born blind, deaf, and dumb. As soon as these 
begin to acquire their natural sensibilities, they assert their power 
of sovereign usurpation. Before that, the will is pleased or of- 
fended, aecording to the supply or denial of mere physical wants. 
hould bear in mind that the curse of sovereign law fell upon 
all that was created, which was under man's sovereign dominion. 
The penal effect of man's first transgression upon his spirit is 
this : that the soul is in bondage to the creature, to natural and 
to spiritual evil, so that the wisdom of man is "earthly, sensual, 
devil; 

Adam's posterity are therefore born not only under the con- 
demnation of sovereign law — dead in law — but also dead to God ; 
objective to Him ; and therefore mere patients or sufferers, with 
no sovereign dominion or legal liberty of will, with no vital power 
of wisdom in the spiritual things of God. 

3. Of the effects of the fall upon Adam's natural posterity, 
physically. 

Being born under the condemnation of the sovereign law of 
life and death, subject to its penalty, the death of the body be- 
comes a universal fact. Human beings having no legal right to 
their lives, life itself is contingent, and depends upon the sover- 
eign will of God, whose providence over all men, since the fall, 
has been conducted upon the principles of His sovereign will, 
His free goodness, long suffering and forbearance. As incident 
to the guilt of death, the body is subject to all manner of diseases 
and manifold sufferings. 

4. Of the effect of the fall upon the mind and conscience of 
Adam's natural posterity. 

Though born without wisdom, in darkness and imbecility, yet 
the adult understanding is capable of great achievements in mathe- 
matics, the exact sciences and in natural philosophy. But when 
religious or moral truth is proposed, the understanding is darkened 
by reason of subjective prejudices and antipathies rooted in the 
pride and inherent viciousness of the human heart, in the active 
powers and in the stubborn rebellion of the will. " Men love 
darkness rather than light." Hence, in religion, in politics, in 
2 



18 A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 

law, in ethics, when men are left of God to themselves, each one 
becomes practically the law to himself, and thinks, believes and 
acts as he chooses. If left to the natural liberty of his own will, 
he will act according to the nature of his own subjective propen- 
sities. 

The desires and passions become the actual law of the most of 
men, though their minds and consciences may, in many instances, 
habitually disapprove and protest. No doubt there have been, 
and are, many instances of natural men, who, by long persever- 
ance, discipline and habits, have given a predominance to the 
judgments of their minds and consciences, so that they are able, 
in a great degree, to restrain the tyranny of sensual, earthly and 
malignant passions. The greatest possible attainments, however, 
in natural religion and morality, leave men in their ungodliness. 
They are under the condemnation of sovereign law, and under the 
wrath of God. There are things that are highly esteemed by 
men, that are abomination in the sight of God. 

Thus it appears that every one of our race is born under the 
condemnation of God's sovereign law, without the favor, without 
the spirit, without the knowledge of God, without His image, and 
with crippled powers of regaining even natural knowledge and do- 
minion. Born without sovereign dominion of will, or over the 
creatures, and with the natural liberty in bondage to a sinful na- 
ture ; without wisdom in the understanding, or holiness in the 
heart or conscience ; physically, also, liable to disease and death ; 
without conformity to the original laws, sovereign, mental, moral 
or material, of the perfect Adam ; born by all divine laws a sinner. 

Thus born, with the spirit in subjection to ignorance of mind, 
impurity of heart, and violence of desires, rage of passions and 
love of error, subject to be inflamed by malignant tempers and 
Satanic influences, in bondage to a heart out of which do proceed 
those iniquities, enumerated by our Saviour in His black cata- 
logue of spiritual sins : in such a condition and with such a nature 
and propensities, how far it may be possible for man, by the 
sweat of his brow, by enterprise, pain and labor, to recover the 
crown, and throne of dominion over himself, over the earth and 
over the creatures, we will briefly consider. 



A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 19 

1. Man's sovereign dominion over himself and his own life, the 
self-determining power of his will, his sovereign liberty of spirit 
is forfeited in law, by transgression, and lost in fact, past redem- 
tion forever. 

2. The natural liberty of man's will, or his dominion over his 
own nature, can, by study and pains, be so far restored, as by 
learning, government and discipline, he can give wisdom and rec- 
titude to his mind, heart and conscience. The extent of his 
knowledge will be the limit of his dominion. His liberty is crip- 
pled in reference to mental and moral laws, except those mental 
laws that are abstract and strictly scientific. By understanding 

: he may reclaim mental power and liberty, i. e. the conformity 
of the conceptions of his thinking faculties with the truth as it exact- 
ly is in the abstract. But on subjects relating to spiritual and moral 
truth, in religion, politics, law, ethics, though men may overcome 
the grosser forms of ignorance, superstition, idolatry, licentious- 
ness, yet the actual attainments of the individual, be he the most 
successful mental and moral philosopher, in self-government, does 
not resemble that kind of dominion over himself and his natural 
powers, which man had as created, and when living by the sub- 
jective inspiration of the word of God. The philosopher is not 
made free from religious and moral error by the word of God ; 
but is in inevitable bondage to the creation, to the rudiments and 
elements of this world, which is under the curse of the law for 
man's sin. 

3. The dominion of man over his own word, in its power of 
expression, being an exact image of his mind, heart, wisdom, 
feelings, will, and in the power of its dominion over the living 
creatures ; man is able to regain but little of these original powers 
of his word in expression and dominion. It is the office of the 
tongue to express man's word and will; and the vitiosity of that 
member results from the lawlessness of man's word itself, whose 
mere servant the tongue is. But " the tongue can no man tame; 
it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison ; the tongue is a fire, a 
world of iniquity, and is set on fire of hell." Man can, however, 
by his skill and labor, recover some of the power, or original do- 
minion of his word, over the living creatures. " For every kind 



20 A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 

of beast, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, 
is tamed and hath been tamed of mankind.' 

4. The dominion of man over his own body and its members. 
All that is recovered of this power is the fruit of care, pains, per- 
severance and labor, of the " sweat of the brow." Infants have 
at first no liberty ; it takes time for them to learn by experience 
the import of their sensations and the uses of their limbs. 

5. As to the powers and laws of creation and nature. Man 
may recover some of his original dominion, on the conditions that, 
first, by painful study, observation, experiment and scientific in- 
duction, he learns the truth concerning the laws of nature ; and 
upon the further condition, that he himself yield obedience to 
those laws by some physical act of his own body. Then, on the 
performance of these two precedent conditions, man can subject 
the most tremendous powers of nature to the dominion of his own 
will, as electricity, wind, water, gravitation, steam, caloric, &c. 
Man can in this way, at pleasure, by his little finger, move the 
almighty arm of God's natural power. 

Man's knowledge, however, in abstract truth and in natural 
philosophy is the limit of his power over nature and its laws. He 
must learn the laws of scientific truth, which are immutable, 
and the laws of nature, which are uniform, or he has no natural 
power over the creatures at all. 

How different the nature and extent of the science of a Hum- 
boldt, who sees in his amazing stores of acquired knowledge so 
much of God's works, and not a line or a dot of the Creator ; 
and that of Adam, the son of God, with his inspired wisdom of 
the creation, and who saw God in all his works. 

How different the telescopic knowledge of the astronomer and 
that of the first man, who, with his divine eye, gazed upon the 
sun, moon and stars, in the light of inspiration and basked in the 
splendor of their celestial revelations. 

Since man is left to the freedom of his own will, the God of 
every natural man is such as he pleases to make for himself ; his 
thoughts in religion are such as he chooses to have them. His 
God is the creature which the fingers of his own mind, heart and 
will have made, and it is the image of himself. 



A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 21 

As to political and civil dominion, the princes, potentates and 
great men of the earth get and keep as much of it as they can. 
This is the arena for the display of men's sovereignty ; and here 
kings fight their hattles and shed their blood, eating of the tree 
of their own knowledge of good and evil. 

In politics and civil jurisprudence, the highest wisdom of men 
for ages upon ages has been on the stretch to obtain the knowledge 
of good and evil ; and with the exception of the leaven, with 
which supernatural revelation hath leavened the mass, men in the 
department of government are as ignorant and as corrupt as ever. 

It is true that the natural faculty of conscience remains in all 
men, and accuses or excuses them for acts and conduct in the 
moral category that conscience itself judges or feels to be wrong 
or right. 

Conscience in holy Adam was an infallible counsellor ; never 
a lawful sovereign. The regal, the sovereign power, the faculty 
to which liberty pertains, is the will. 

To Adam's posterity conscience is a blind guide, or a parasiti- 
cal and crafty sophist, or a servile pander, or a " dumb dog," or a 
lawless, fanatical, raging tyrant. Nevertheless, it is true that in 
relation to civil society and social morality, conscience may be 
made the most precious fragment amongst the ruins of the fall. 
Its character depends upon its education. 

Providence is but the fulfilling of the Scriptures, and it is un- 
doubtedly, historically, and philosophically true, that while men 
have been and are, able by labor of mind and body, by patience, 
perseverance and many sacrifices, to accomplish some temporal 
good for themselves, and some dominion over nature and the 
creatures; yet, that spiritually and religiously — unless the day 
spring from on high visits them— they do abide in total darkness, 
in the bondage of strange, unaccountable and gloomy supersti- 
tions, or are bewildered, bewitched and lost in the profound, 
" absolute," inanities of intellectual hallucinations : or among the 
shadows and spectres of spiritual phantasmagoria. 

Upon man's transgression of sovereign law, the curse of the 
law fell upon man and upon all of the creatures that were under 
man's sovereign dominion ; upon all the earth, upon all that was 



22 A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 

created within the man, and external to the man, upon his mind, 
heart, conscience, body, and upon all the living creatures ; all, 
all were subjected to vanity, disease, violence and death, and the 
whole creation that groaneth in bondage, after trembling and suf- 
fering for ages under the heat of that curse, will be burned up by 
its fire. 

When God created the heavens and the earth, He made all 
very good. There was nothing in His works but beauty, harmony, 
happiness and glorious perfection. It was a blessed creation and 
the blessing of the Creator rested upon it. 

Some angels and man were endowed with personal, sovereign 
and independent dominion, and placed under the sovereign law of 
the Lord God. Hence the possibility of sin depended upon the 
free and sovereign agency of independent subordinate dominions 
and powers. 

Mental, moral and physical sin and misery, could never have 
existed in the dominions of Him, whose kingdom ruleth over all, 
except in the nature of punishment for sin against sovereign law. 

With mankind, therefore, it is a question of infinite moment, 
whether there be any power in God, Himself, to deliver man from 
the condemnation of His sovereign law, from the curse of " the 
law of sin and death," and to raise him to a condition of endless 
happiness and holiness ? and if there be any such power in the 
nature of God, whether He hath the will to put it forth ? 

1st. The power ; 2d. Its laws ; or first, the law of God's nature, 
and second, the law of His will. 

Is there, in the divine nature, the power of* mercy to unright- 
eousness, of forgiveness of sin ? and also of creating a sinner in 
His own image, beyond the contingency of a second fall ? 

In these things of God we are shut up to His book of super- 
natural revelations, to His objective word. " Hear and your soul 
shall live." That word is the only true oracle. Faith in God 
comes only by hearing that word, which reveals the blood of the 
new covenant shed " for the remission of sins." Saith God, by 
that word, " I will put my law in their minds and write it upon 
their hearts, because I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, 
and their sins and iniquities I will remember no more." 



A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 23 

Hence the word of the gospel is the revelation of the Son of 
God, in whom we have redemption, even the forgiveness of our 
sins, according to the riches of His grace. Hereby life and im- 
mortality arc brought to light. 

The word of the Gospel is the -power of Gfod unto salvation from 
sin, because thereby is revealed God's own righteousness for its 
pardon. His own everlasting righteousness is His own power, 
the power of His nature in delivering men — to whom this righte- 
ousness is given — from their condemnation by sovereign law. 
Till man receives, by faith, this righteousness, he remains under 
the curse of the law. 

There are but two men with whom God ever treated on terms 
of sovereign law : the first Adam who was made a living soul, 
and the second Adam who is a quickening spirit. The first man 
was of the earth, earthy ; the second man is the Lord from hea- 
ven, and as we have borne the image of the earthly, so we must 
bear the image of the heavenly. 

The first man was and is the type of the human nature, of the 
genus man : and the legal representative of man, the sovereign 
lord of himself and of this world ; of man's spiritual liberty and 
sovereign dominion ; of man's nature and of man's will. The 
second Adam is the type, the express image of God's own nature 
and the legal representative to all men, of God's sovereign liberty 
and absolute and supreme dominion. 

The personal relations of all other men to God were, are and 
ever will be, determined by their legal relations to these two men. 

The natural law of all men is to put on the old, the natural 
man, his thoughts, feelings, desires, ways and will ; all which 
"are corrupt according to the deceitful lusts." The first law is 
that which is natural, then afterwards, that which is spiritual. It 
is the law of the spiritual man to put off the old, the natural 
man, with his thoughts, feelings, desires, ways and will, to put off 
the corrupt human nature, and to put on the new, spiritual and 
dlrnie nature, by faith in the second Adam, God's own Son. It is 
written, whosoever believeth in Him is not condemned, but is par- 
doned, justified, hath eternal life and shall be saved with an ever- 
lasting salvation ; that we are washed, justified and sanctified in 



24 A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 

the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. By 
faith in his promise we are made partakers of God's moral and 
spiritual nature. The hand of faith lays hold of the arm of God's 
own truth, grace, righteousness and holiness : all things are pos- 
sible to him that believeth, because with God all things are possi- 
ble, and He is faithful who promiseth. 

The word of God's purpose of redemption fell upon the ears of 
the first transgressor. Some dark, confused and traditionary no- 
tions of a golden age, or of a better future, have prevailed amongst 
most of Adam's posterity. But the objective word of God, super- 
naturally revealed, from the day of Adam, until now, has been 
the only light of salvation. God who at sundry times and in 
divers manners, spake unto the fathers by the prophets, hath, in 
these last times, spoken unto us by His Son. God spake to Adam, 
to the antediluvian patriarchs, to Noah, Job, Abraham, Isaac and 
Jacob, to Moses and the prophets. The word of the Lord came 
to them all. 

The sovereign word or law of the gospel, was given through 
Moses objectively. So also was the moral law, in the form of a 
sovereign law of commandments, written upon tables of stone, 
and not revealed, first, subjectively in the heart. 

Man is so ignorant in religion and morals that he is dependent 
upon supernatural objective revelation, for the knowledge of his 
duties to God and to man ; and for the understanding of the sin- 
fulness of his own religious and moral nature. 

God by His objective word of prophecy, precept, threatening 
and promise, taught His people in all ages to look to " the seed 
of the woman," "the seed of Abraham," " the son of David," 
for salvation ; and that seed and that son is Christ. 

In the fullness of time He came in the flesh to do and to suf- 
fer — to fulfil all that was written in the law, in the Psalms, and 
in the Prophets, concerning Him. The Word of God, by whom 
and for whom the heavens and the earth, and all the hosts of 
them, were created ; the Word who was in the beginning with 
God, and who was God — the Word of God was made flesh, made 
of a woman, made under the sovereign law, and under its curse, 
thai. He might redeem those who were under the curse of that 



A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 

law. Saith the Evangelist, " the word was made flesh, and we 
beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, 
full of grace and truth." 

A mere man under the curse of God's sovereign law, must 
abide in spiritual death forever, unless the condemnation can be 
removed. Hence God's own eternal Wokd became incarnate, sub- 
jected in our flesh to the sovereign law and its curse, fulfilled its 
precept, and as a patient and sufferer, bore its penalty in His own 
body on the tree. He suffered death, and then in fulfilment of 
the word of promise, He rose from the dead by His own power 
of a divine and endless life. He died for our sins, and rose from 
the dead for our justification. In His Son Jesus, God appears 
personally, fulfilling subjectively in the flesh the eternal and im- 
mutable law of His own moral and spiritual nature, and the per- 
fect law of the sovereign liberty of His own will. He is mani- 
fested as the just God, the forgiver of sins, and the everlasting 
Saviour. He appears in a higher form than that of Creator, 
than that of the supreme and sovereign Lord to Adam. In 
Christ God appears Himself personally, and we behold our God, 
the God of all grace and patience, the all- wise God, the supreme 
and sovereign Lord, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin ; 
the Almighty Saviour opening the eyes of the blind, setting at 
liberty the captives of sin and Satan, lifting up the fallen and 
broken spirit, breathing into those who are spiritually dead, a 
new, divine and eternal life ; creating again the powers of man's 
mind, heart, conscience and will, after his own personal image, 
upon the principles of the laws of His own nature, of the sover- 
eign freedom of His own will, and for His own never ending 
glory. 

The word of the gospel which reveals God's own Son, mani- 
fests in Him, the Father ; we behold in the Son the brightness of 
the glory and the express image of God's personality : " and this 
is eternal life to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ 
whom ?W)U ha^t sent." 

In the i^rks of creation, God manifested His goodness, wis- 
dom and power in and by the creatures. He acted freely. No 
more of the Deity could be known from such works, than appear- 



26 A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 

ed in the gifts and endowments of the creatures themselves. The 
goodness of God that is in Himself \ could only be displayed by 
the revelation of His own moral and personal character. 

In giving the sovereign law to Adam, and in inflicting its pen- 
alty upon the offender, no more of God could be known than His 
supreme and sovereign dominion, the truth of His royal word, 
and the severity of His legal or vindictive justice. 

The goodness that was in the bosom of the Father, in the heart 
of God, the riches of the goodness of His own nature, could only 
be revealed by a person and a work that would bring God Him- 
self personally and perfectly out into view. That person is God's 
own Son, the second Adam, and that work is His redemption. 

No one hath seen God Himself at any time ; the only begotten 
Son, who is in the bosom of the Father ; He hath declared Him ; 
He hath manifested the personality of the Most High. The per- 
sonal Word of God — not in His works of creation — not as the 
supreme Lord, giving the sovereign law to Adam — not as the 
judge and avenger in judgment and justice — but the Wokd as 
made flesh, assuming man's nature, man's place under the con- 
demnation of sovereign law ; in the Son of God, the Lord of all, 
becoming the servant of all ; in the first, in the kingdom of 
heaven ; becoming the last and the least ; in the word of God 
becoming subjective in the human nature to sovereign law ; in 
Jesus Christ's coming into this world to do and suffer the will of 
God ; in His death, resurrection from the dead, and in His 
reign at God's right hand, — in and by these works the Son of 
God reveals the personality of God. He brings to light the law 
of God's own nature, love : and the law of God's own will, su- 
preme and sovereign. In His cross the Son of God exhibits to 
angels and to men the moral nature and the law of the God- 
head. Here arc revealed all the full orbed glories, the personal 
and moral attributes and perfections of Jehovah, harmonious 
by conspiring and having their full expression, effect and power 
in the eternal redemption and salvation of sinners, through 
their faith in God's own Son — the second Adam. We speak not 
now of the human perfections of Jesus Christ, whether spiritual, 
mental, moral or physical ; but of those divine perfections of this 



A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 27 

man, -which make His name the personal power of God in par- 
doning, justifying, sanctifying and saving sinners. We speak of 
that sovereign law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which free3 
us from the law of sin and death. 

We have referred to the righteousness of God which is in 
Christ Jesus. The Son of God not only bore, in His own body 
on the tree, the penalty of that sovereign law which Adam vio- 
lated ; lie was not only a perfect man in law and in fact, in mind, 
heart, conscience, will, in thought, sentiment, word, deed and 
suffering, but He by His incarnation, obedience, death, resurrec- 
tion and exaltation, fulfilled the law by which God rules Himself, 
and the law of His free, sovereign and independent will ; the law 
of God's own nature, and the law of God's own will. 

The law of God's liberty may be viewed according to its own 
nature. 

1. His liberty or right in His official character, as the supreme 
and sovereign Lord, to ordain an objective sovereign law, as He 
did for Adam. In giving the law, He acted freely ; but after 
transgression, He did not act personally or freely, but officially, 
as Judge of man the sinner; and in this character He will not 
clear the guilty. He will fulfil His word, and vindicate His law- 
ful dominion. 

2. Again, in God's kingdom that ruleth over all, He hath a 
natural and a sovereign liberty. In His spiritual and moral na- 
ture, He is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. By His own 
personal perfections, by His own sovereign grace, by His own 
righteousness, holiness, truth and wisdom that are in the Lord 
Jesus Christ, doth He save sinners. He is therefore by the free- 
dom and perfections of His own nature, manifestly as able to 
save all the world as one man. Were He, however, to save all 
men, His legal justice in their condemnation, and His own right- 
eousness in their redemption, would not so conspicuously appear, 
and the Lord God would not be revealed as a supreme sovereign 
in law, and a supreme sovereign in grace, when in truth He is both. 

But whatever may be t\\a depths of His counsel in this mystery, 
we know that it is not the law of His sovereign and supreme 
will to save all men. He saves only such sinners as He chooses 



28 A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 

to save according to the sovereign, independent and self-deter- 
mining power of His own will. He " hath mercy on whom He 
will have mercy, and hardeneth whom He will." He may, ac- 
cording to the perfect law of His natural liberty, proceed with 
men on the principles of His legal justice, or of His sovereign 
grace. In either case His own name is glorified. 

As the power of the potter over the same identical clay, so is 
God's sovereign power over sinners. This is the sovereignMhertj 
of the King of kings. 

As all are personally sinners, God's providence over men is a 
system of gratuitous goodness, patience, long-suffering and for- 
bearance. Every good positive or negative, every mitigation of 
evil and of suffering, mental, moral or physical, is the gift of 
God's sovereign mercy to the unrighteous, for " He is kind to the 
evil and to the unthankful. " 

The Lord is free from all natural and legal obligations to the 
human race, and is at sovereign liberty to give or take away tem- 
poral mercies as He pleaseth. 

In selecting the objects of His saving and everlasting mercy, 
God acts as the supreme and sovereign Lord, and herein mani- 
fests His personal liberty and His own personality. The redeemed 
are they who are chosen in Christ Jesus, before the world began, 
to the glory of God's own free and sovereign grace, according to 
His eternal purpose, which He purposed in Himself. He acts as 
freely in redeeming from the penalty of the sovereign law as Adam 
did in violating its precept. 

It is lawful for the supreme, sovereign Lord • God to do what 
He wiU, with His own grace. If He were prompted in His choice 
by any motive out of Himself, by anything "a'b extra," by any 
act of rectitude in a sinner, either foreseen from eternity or per- 
ceived in time, then it is evident that the Lord's choice of that 
sinner would not be of G-od's free grace, not of God's sovereign 
choice, not of God's own grace, not of the self-determining power 
of God's free will. In such a supposed choice God could not ap- 
pear as acting personally, freely ; nor could a sinner, so chosen, 
be said to be chosen freely by the grace of God. 

We should bear in mind that the nature of God's mercy to sin- 



A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 29 

ncrs is His own mercy to their own zmrighteousness, to their in- 
iquities, transgressions, offences, sins. 

The love of God to His chosen people is His own personal love ; 
it is eternal, infinite, immutable ; it is the same love wherewith 
the Father loveth the Son. It is from everlasting to everlasting. 
It is the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Of its nature it is 
impossible for man to conceive, except with a heart purified by 
faith ; and to the faith of a little child it is self-evident ly the love 
of God, though the heights and depths thereof pass human know- 
ledge. 

It is the liberty of His own choice, that makes God's grace ap- 
pear to be sovereign and independent of the creature, and that 
verifies His grace to be personally His oivn. 

His own righteousness finished on the cross, reveals the freedom 
of the nature of God's grace ; His justification of believers by that 
righteousness proves the freeness of God's grace, and its inde- 
pendence of the creature. " Freely by His grace, through the 
redemption that is in Christ Jesus." 

The love and pity of God to mankind are not manifested in 
the effects of redemption, but in its final cause ; not in the mere 
deliverance of a multitude whom no man can number from endless 
sin and misery, not in their blessedness, honor and everlasting 
happiness, but in and by Him who is their Redeemer. The love 
of God is manifested in the gift of His Son to become the propi- 
tiation for our sins, and for His own eternal glory. Whosoever 
believcth that God hath thus given His Son, will also believe that 
with Him God will also freely give all things pertaining to life 
and godliness to those who ask Him. 

That the grace of God which bringcth salvation is free and 
sovereign, is verified by the cardinal doctrine of the gospel, con- 
cerning God's mode of accepting, pardoning and justifying sin- 
ners. They are justified by Jesus Christ, Himself, personally, by 
His blood, by the righteousness and grace of God, that are in 
Christ Jesus ; and on the sinner's part, it is through his faith in 
God's own son, that it might manifestly appear to be by the grace 
of God freely. 

God's own grace and mercy by the punishment of sins in the 



30 A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 

body of His only begotten son, reveal His own righteousness for 
the forgiveness of sins. God's own mercy and righteousness are 
both seen blended in the true light of the cross. His mercy in 
punishment. His righteousness in pardon. 

Condemnation and justification are both judicial acts pro- 
nounced upon the disobedience or obedience of the sovereign laws 
of the Lord God; of the sovereign, spiritual laws of God the 
King supreme. These judgments proceed on legal, federal, repre- 
sentative principles of divine and spiritual truth ; sinners are jus- 
tified by faith in the second Adam, God's own son. In Him we 
behold the perfect fulfilment of the sovereign laws of the human 
and of the divine natures ; therefore it is that whosoever believeth 
in Him is justified and hath eternal life. 

God the Lord may leave man to the natural liberty of His will 
or He may subject that will to the obedience of His own will, by 
His Spirit, according to the perfect law of liberty, through faith 
in the word of promise of the gospel. All the promises of God 
to mankind are made to His Son, the second Adam, by faith in 
whom only cometh to other men God's truth, grace, pardon, peace, 
life and salvation. 

From the free will to save, from the heart of the Father, pro- 
ceeded the word of promise of salvation, and according to His 
own eternal and immutable free will and word, proceedeth God's 
act of salvation by His own Spirit. 

The gracious will, the sovereign word of promise and the act of 
performance, indicate the official and personal relations of the 
Father, Son and Spirit in God's work of salvation. 

The gospel is preached by the commandment of God to every 
oreature : and all men, every where, are obliged by His authority 
to change their own thoughts, sentiments and judgments concern- 
ing Him, and to believe the truth which His word of the gospel 
testifies of God's Son ; in other words, all men are commanded to 
repent toward God and believe His gospel, all are commanded to 
receive the offered gifts of pardon of their sins, and the offered 
gifts of everlasting righteousness and life that are in Christ Jesus. 
All are commanded to receive the atonement, and to be reconciled 
to God by the death of his son. 



A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 81 

The word of God abounds with testimonies, invitations and pro- 
mises of acceptance, pardon, peace, temporal and eternal blessings, 
to those who receive and love the truth, and with the threaten- 
ings of temporal and eternal punishments to those who reject the 
Saviour. The warrant of faith by the objective word of God is 
the same for all men. It profits not most to whom it is preached, 
because it is not mixed with faith in those who hear it ; because, 
by their own impenitence and unbelief, they depart from the living 
God. 

It is only by the word of the truth of the gospel, that the Son 
of God is revealed. The natural and inevitable order of the law 
of grace therefore is this : " believe and you shall see the salva- 
tion of God." 

The reply of the mind, heart and will of man is, let me see 
and then I will believe. Man will not hear, that he may learn 
wisdom of God's word. He will not come to Christ, in order 
that he may receive from Him light, life and salvation. Light 
has come into the world, but men love darkness rather than light, 
because their oxen thoughts, sentiments, desires, ways and wills; 
because their own deeds, religiously, are evil ; and this is their 
condemnation. They will not give God the credit of speaking 
the truth, but like Eve they choose to believe a lie, rather 
than the word of God ; and as Adam rebelled against the word 
and authority of God, so his posterity refuse to obey the great 
command, to repent and believe the gospel. As Satan deceived 
Eve through his subtlety, even so are men beguiled through the 
deceitfulness of sin. 

Unbelief and disobedience of the word of God, being volunta- 
ry, prove the justice of their own legal condemnation. God, the 
Lord, hath exalted His word above all His name ; if men will 
not believe and obey it, they must perish. 

What God speaks to men, His own objective word, supernatu- 
rally revealed by scripture, is the only infallible rule of religious 
faith and practice. All lights tvitJiin, all convictions, revelations, 
impulses, impressions, sentiments and feelings there, must be 
brought forth into the light of the scripture, and tried by that 
external standard. While a man inspects the operations of his 



32 A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 

own imagination, mind, heart or conscience, and ponders upon 
their intellectual, moral or religious developements or phenomena, 
he can learn nothing but what he actually beholds — the facts that 
occur there — his own thoughts, and his own ways of intuition, 
perception, feeling, investigation and judgment. The moment 
he asks whether these are morally and religiously, right or wrong, 
true or false, he is obliged, from the necessities of his mental 
constitution and moral nature — unless indeed he assumes person- 
al infallibility — to refer to some law out of and higher than him- 
self. Unless man be in truth and in fact, by the constitution and 
laws of his mental, moral and religious nature, like, in the image 
of God, it is evident he cannot, by a superficial self-inspection, 
or by delving in the depths of his own intellectual or religious 
consciousness, find the truth in relation to God, His character, 
laws or moral kingdom. 

Postulating man then as> a sinner, he is shut up to the neces- 
sity of a supernatural objective revelation by God's own word 
for his religious knowledge ; and unless God give his word, and 
also, because of men's love of error, His Spirit, to teach them 
subjectively the truth, glory and power of the objective word, 
they will never understand, believe or obey it. This certainty 
results from the law of man's nature and the law of his will. 
To natural men the word and wisdom of God is an offence or 
foolishness ; they choose darkness rather than light. 

The faith and hope of the church therefore in her labors of 
love, sufferings, trials, and sacrifices for the truth's sake, should 
be alone in the faithfulness and in the power of God. He hath 
revealed His eternal and immutable decree to destroy the works 
of sin and Satan, and to fill this world with His own knowledge 
and glory. In the exercise of faith and patience, the prayers of 
His people ascend for the coming of His kingdom. Therefore, 
saith an Apostle, " I endure all things for the elect's sake, that 
they may obtain the salvation of God with eternal glory." 

Personal subjective salvation is called sanctification ; the law 
of which is the covenant of grace, with its great and precious 
promises ; these are all yea and amen in Christ Jesus, the only 
mediator of that covenant and the surety thereof. The children 



A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 33 

of God among men are begotten and born of His word by His 
own Spirit: of that germ or seed of the word of God that is na- 
turally objective to mankind. They are not created as Adam 
was out of the dust; nor as Eve, out of the rib of man; from 
nothing on the earth, or within man; not from the elements or 
rudiments of creation or nature, but they are born and made of 
the divine side of that man, whose blood was shed for the remis- 
sion of sins. They are not children of God by creation and in- 
spiration, after His natural image, with a legal and contingent 
life ; but they are begotten and born again of His Spirit, par- 
takers of His moral, spiritual, divine nature, of His eternal life, 
of His truth, grace, holiness, wisdom, righteousness, of Himself. 
Saith an Apostle, " we are all the children of God by faith in 
Christ Jesus." The first man was not made for the woman, but 
the first woman for the man. Even so the Son of God, the se- 
cond Adam, was not made for, but of the woman and for the 
divine redemption of the church — "the spouse of Christ" — and 
that she should be without spot or wrinkle or any such thing ; 
holy, undefiled and incorruptible ; spiritual and truly divine ; for 
Himself. 

The children of the promises are heirs of God Himself, and 
joint heirs with Christ. Their legal title to the inheritance is 
identically His own, and therefore indefeasable. Such children 
and heirs shall be saved with an everlasting salvation, because 
He who hath promised is true and faithful. These children of 
God are not created after the image of the first or natural Adam, 
but are predestinated to be conformed to the image of the second 
Adam — the Lord from heaven — God's only begotten Son. 

The subjective spiritual work of the new creation, it is the 
covenant office of God's free Spirit, who garnisheth the heavens, 
to perfect according to the free promise of the gospel. He work- 
eth therefore subjectively, in the children of God, " to will and 
to do of God's good pleasure." The pattern after which He 
works is the express image of God's only begotten Son, whom 
the gospel only reveals. In the new creation the spirit worketh 
by the supernatural word of God as it is written in Scripture ; 
for he sanctifies believers by that truth, which is His word. He 
3 



34 A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 

takes of the things of the Saviour that are thereby revealed, and 
shews and gives them to the subjects of His grace ; and so by 
revealing to them in the person and word of God's own Son, the 
express image of God Himself, in His personal and sovereign 
character of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, He puts His 
law in their minds and writes it upon their hearts, and thus fulfils 
the promise of the everlasting covenant. 

As objective legal salvation is all by the sovereign grace of 
God that is in His Son Jesus only ; so subjective, personal, spi- 
ritual salvation, is all the work of the Spirit only. 

Now, as Adam's life consisted, not in his own, free, sovereign 
and independent act, but in his resting in the subjective word of 
inspiration, and in obedience to the objective law ; in not acting 
personally, but in resting upon the laws of creation and on the 
objective, sovereign law, in the enjoyment of his natural liberty, 
of his creatures, and of his Creator ; as his own act, was death ; so 
a believer's life consists in self-denial, and in resting on the ob- 
jective word of God's promise, which is eternal life. The believer 
rests in the express promise of God in His Son, for His wisdom, 
righteousness, sanctification and life. He lives by faith on the 
Son of God : he lives, and yet not he, but Christ liveth in him, 
and therefore his life is hid with Christ in God. The believers' 
religious faith is not in the creature, in creation or its laws, but 
in the word and promise of his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
So that while God works in the believer, to will and to do of His 
good pleasure, according to and in fulfilment of His promises, 
the believer himself personally, by receiving and resting in those 
promises, by faith in the word of God, does these same works in 
obedience to the commandments of God that correspond to His 
promises. The believer himself repents and believes, changes 
his mind and heart, sanctifies himself, overcometh sin and Satan, 
and worketh righteousness. By faith in God's word of promise, 
he layeth hold of God's own moral power, and in the strength of 
the Lord performs the precepts of the Lord. He doeth the will 
of God. The truth and the Son of God hath set him free, and 
he is free indeed. 

The word of God, written in the scripture, is the supreme law 



A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 35 

of sanctification. In temptations, bereavements, perils and dis- 
tresses, a very present help in every time of trouble. " How readi- 
est thou?" " Thus and thus it is written, and thus and thus it 
iinist be." " Heaven and earth shall pass away, but the word of 
God shall not pass away ;" and " this is that word which, by the 
gospel, is preached unto you." 

When Jesus was tempted of the devil, He overcome by " the 
sword of the Spirit," the word of God written in the scriptures. 
All that man knew, He learned from that word. Said He, " of 
mine own self I know nothing, as I hear I judge, and my judg- 
ment is true, because I seek not mine own will, but the will of 
Him who sent me." "If thine eye be single, thy whole body 
shall be full of light." 

" Faith worketh by love," and love is the fulfilling of the law. 
This love is not a sentimental, sympathetic, a natural affection. 
Christian "love seeketh not her own," her own thoughts, feelings, 
ways or will. This love seeketh the things that are of Christ 
Jesus. It is a self-denying love, and a love to the word of God. 
"This is love that we keep His commandments." In short, we 
are saved subjectively and spiritually " through sanctification of 
the Spirit and belief of the truth." 

It remains briefly to consider those subordinate powers and 
dominions among men, that are ordained of God — the governments 
of the Family, of the State and of the Church. The first two are 
sovereign dominions ; the last is administrative in its form ; min- 
isterial and declaratory of God's word in its legitimate functions. 

The State is an institute ordained among men, by the word of 
God, for His glory in their temporal security and welfare. The 
word of the Lord God is the only foundation for the lawful do- 
minion and sovereignty of man over man. The political form 
of government depends upon human agency ; upon military power, 
or man's consent ; but under all political forms, despotic or free, 
the moral obligation to obey civil law depends upon the express 
command of God. The obligation of obedience to civil govern- 
ment does not rest upon the foundation of human compact, express 
or implied, nor on man's own consent; whatever may be the poli- 
tical form, which does depend on man, yet obedience to civil law 



36 A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 

is a duty imposed expressly by divine authority. Our consent to 
civil law is not the ground of our moral obligation to obedience ; 
nor is the oath of allegiance our moral bond of fidelity to our 
country. Both are duties imposed by the express command, the 
sovereign law of the supreme Ruler. 

1. What is the State ? Who is the sovereign ? These ques- 
tions are historically and practically determined among men by 
force of arms, by military power, or by compacts and treaties 
among sovereigns. 

The facts being determined, " the powers that be are those that 
are ordained of God." The kingdom of God, in His providence, 
ruleth over all. 

To the sovereign power in the State are delegated of God the 
awful prerogatives of the sword. The sword is lawfully drawn 
in defence of sovereignty itself, when invaded, and also to en- 
force obedience, or to restrain and punish transgressors of civil 
law. The sword is rightfully used as a terror to evil doers, and 
a defence to those who do well in political or civil affairs. 

In the free white men of our State is vested her sovereignty. 
These sovereigns have ordained two civil governments, the Fede- 
ral and the State. To the former have they delegated certain 
sovereign powers of legislation, and some judicial powers of an 
exclusive and supreme authority, in questions and affairs pertain- 
ing to civil law and equity. But they have delegated to neither 
government — Federal or State — their own, sovereign and su- 
preme political dominion. If they are not as free in annulling or 
modifying their Federal as their State constitution of govern- 
ment, it is simply because of their own compact with other sove- 
reign States or peoples ; whereby they have agreed that it shall 
not be changed except upon certain conditions ; a bond in no way 
inconsistent with the political supremacy of the sovereign people 
in South Carolina. 

These civil governments — Federal and State — are thus clothed 
by the sovereign power in this State, with legislative powers ; 
and all the laws they pass, in civil affairs, within their legitimate 
jurisdiction, are, by divine as well as human authority, binding ; 
morally, as well as legally, obligatory. 



A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 37 

The Son of God paid tribute to Caesar, and suffered death by 
the sentence of his tribunal ; the two highest proofs possible, of 
voluntary submission to the divine authority, in obedience to the 
civil magistracy. 

The prerogative of making civil law, though potentially and 
remotely in the sovereign people, yet actually, legally, and for 
the time being, is vested in the legislatures. 

Under our political system, then, the representative is not 
bound in his legislative functions, by any instructions from his 
constituents, except such as are written down in the constitutions. 
If he were, he would not be a representative legislator, in the 
place and stead of the people, to make laws for them to obey, 
but he would be their mere factor or agent, to declare their sover- 
eign will, and himself without any moral responsibility in legisla- 
tion, which, for a legislator, is an absurdity. 

Our legislatures, then, are the powers that be, that are ordained 
of God, and their enactments — as civil laws — are, by His word, 
made morally binding. 

The personal influence of electors from their power at the bal- 
lot-box is incidental, and does not impugn the legal and moral 
rights, powers and responsibilities of our legislators to make and 
ordain our civil law. And they are bound by the command of 
Him whose kingdom ruleth over all, to use their high powers in 
truth, wisdom, justice, equity, mercy and honor, as " God's min- 
isters in this very thing." 

The political right of sovereignty to draw the sword in its own 
defence, is also a moral right, and may become a moral duty. 
This is not what is called " the right of revolution," which, under 
certain circumstances, is supposed to justify the violent resistance 
of subjects to sovereign authority, with the view of subverting it, 
which, if capable of moral justification at all, must be so on 
very different principles of moral and political law, from those 
which maintain the moral right of sovereigns, to vindicate their 
political dominion with the sword. 

It belongs, then, to the sovereign people, in their political ca- 
pacity, to determine cases of usurpation, and also cases of abuse of 
delegated power, as well as the time, mode and measure of redress. 



38 A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 

The Federal Government has no legislative power in South 
Carolina, but that which has been freely delegated by the sove- 
reign people of the State. 

So far as the Constitution partakes of the nature of a treaty, 
political differences concerning the powers or action of the Fede- 
ral Government can only be legitimately settled by the parties 
themselves ; the States or the people of the States, in their sove- 
reign character, and in the mode provided by the Constitution. 

The Federal Government, being itself no party to the Consti- 
tution, but its mere creature, has no power to determine upon the 
political rights of the States, or the people : though in all civil 
cases, " cases of law and equity," the Supreme Court is the final 
tribunal between the parties. 

The subject, in whom sovereign, political dominion inheres, 
being man, and the objects of that power, the bodies of men and 
their civil and temporal affairs, the government is, in its own na- 
ture, profane, ungodly. In this kingdom the will of man is su- 
preme, and the word of man the law. It is, however, sanctified 
to believers by the word of God, which makes its enactments 
binding on the conscience. 

The subjects of civil government are not, in that character, 
responsible for the rectitude of its laws, whether wise or unwise ; 
their only duty is to hear and obey them, and that " not only for 
wrath but also for conscience sake." 

In their political character, however, the free men of this State 
have the moral responsibility for the settled and permanent 
character of its legislation. Hence it appears that the civil go- 
vernment has no legitimate jurisdiction in religion, and to inter- 
fere in any authoritative way with it, is to usurp His spiritual 
prerogative, "Whose kingdom ruleth over all." 

The badges of civil dominion, the purple of the Caesar, the 
ermine of his judges, the sword of his soldier, the staff of his con- 
stable, all the regal insignia of office, have, in the State, an au- 
thoritative and divine significance. From the head of the body 
politic to the soles of the feet, the sacred unction of the King of 
kings, perfumes and sanctifies the whole and every member. How 
different such emblems that indicate the oflicers of divine and 



A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 39 

Imman authority, to whom we arc bound to submit, as serving 
God and not man ; how different from the puerile, vain and sense- 
less gewgaws and garish trappings of man's own voluntary foole- 
ries, which can have no legal or moral, no divine or human signi- 
ficance of authority, truth, wisdom or virtue. 

■2. The Family is the other government amongst mankind that 
possesses sovereign dominion. The head of the family is the 
domestic legislator. His ivill is sovereign, his word, law. Wives, 
children and servants are put in subjection to the authority of 
husbands, fathers and masters, by the word of the Lord. 

The nature of the dominion of the sovereign ruler in the house 
is, like that of the State, physical and profane. The symbol of 
its power is the rod, corporal punishment the sanction of its law. 
As the civil government, so is the domestic, sanctified to believers 
by the word of God. The family, like the civil ruler, is morally 
responsible to God, for the use of his authority. The family is 
not a mere natural society, nor are the relations of its members 
merely voluntary. They sustain legal relations to each other, or- 
dained by the word of the Lord. They have therefore recipro- 
cal, legal and moral rights and obligations. 

Most remarkable is the sanction that our Saviour, by His ex- 
ample, gives to the sacred authority of family government. All 
that is written of Him from His twelfth year, until He began to 
be about thirty years of age, is this, that He was subject to His 
parents. 

In God's kingdom, which ruleth over all, and in the subordinate 
sovereign dominions of the Family and of the State, we find His 
word penetrating the spirit and binding the conscience in obedi- 
ence to civil and domestic law. So that He, in His wisdom, gives 
spiritual freedom to all who are in subjection to the civil and do- 
mestic ruler, and who do or suffer in the service of mVal mas- $W4 
ters, " as serving God and not man." For the kingdom of God 
reigneth over all subordinate and legitimate powers and domin- 
ions. The sovereign dominion of man over man is limited to the 
institutes of the State and the Family. 

These are the only societies on earth, clothed with the sover- 
eign prerogative of making law to bind the conscience. 



40 A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 

The Family and the State are divine institutes, and not volun- 
tary societies. The members are horn into them, that is the law ; 
the exception is where strangers and foreigners are received into 
them by the laws of the State or of the Family. 

3. The remaining human government, ordained of God, is that 
of the churches. Ecclesiastical government is in its nature ad- 
ministrative, and that purely ministerial and declarative of the 
word of God written in the scriptures. The government of the 
church has no sovereign prerogatives, no authority to legislate or 
make laws, and no infallible judicial powers. It has no right to 
lord it over God's heritage by any laws or words of its own, under 
any pretence of delegated, divine, hereditary, absolute, parental, 
judicial or declaratory authority. For it is not lawful for a chris- 
tian man to call any, lord, father or teacher, but Christ himself, 
the only mediator between God and man. And who art thou 
that judgest aDother man's servant ; to his own master he stand- 
eth or falleth. The symbol of the power in the government of 
the ehurch, is " the keys ;" and the church is bound, by the word 
of the Lord, to receive into its communion penitent, understand- 
ing and believing sinners — those who believe and obey the gos- 
pel — and to shut out from the fellowship of the saints, those of an 
opposite character. If gross offenders are so numerous, that be- 
lievers cannot put out evil persons and factions, then they should 
separate themselves and come out from such workers of iniquity. 
Men as rulers in God's house, should govern themselves by that 
written word, by which all men will be judged at the last day. Nei- 
ther men nor societies, calling themselves christians and churches, 
are infallible ; and some have so far departed from the truth and 
obedience of the gospel, as to become gloomy prisons of dark- 
ness, superstition or fanaticism — mere " synagogues of Satan." 

The foundation of God, however, standeth sure, having this 
seal, " the Lord knoweth them that are His." And we, in the 
light of His word, may know them by their fruits. 

That of the church is the only lawful human government on 
earth, that, in its own nature, is sacred and spiritual. Its offices 
are ministerial and declarative of God's word only, and when tru- 
ly and faithfully administered, they who despise its declarations, 



A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 41 

invitations, warnings, admonitions, reproofs and censures, do des- 
pise Christ, and do despise God who sent Him. 

That of the church is, therefore, incomparably the most exalt- 
ed and honorable government known on earth among mankind, 
and its administration involves by far the most tremendous re- 
sponsibilities. 

Heavy, heavy woes are denounced by the king supreme upon 
those who add to, or take from the things written in His book, 
who add to or take from His word, and upon all who preach their 
own dreams, teach for doctrine the commandments of men, or 
make void the word of God by their own traditions. 

4. There is yet another dominion that men actually have and 
exercise over their fellow men ; the power of superior or ambi- 
tious minds, or of those of greater knowledge and experience ; 
the power of mental and moral persuasion. 

This dominion, however, is not a free, spiritual, or legal gov- 
ernment, yet actual and natural. The subject is convinced or 
persuaded in his own mind or conscience ; it is his own judgment, 
desire, or choice that governs him at last, and not the word of a 
lawful superior. By the power of mental or moral suasion, there 
is no subjection of the sovereign will of one, to the sovereign 
will of a superior ruler, by the ivord or laiu of that ruler. In other 
words, there is no voluntary subjection or obedience. 

If a man freely gives himself up to others, if he chooses to 
have no mind, conscience, judgment, or will of his own, but pre- 
fers to be blindly led by his confidence in them, he simply chooses 
to be a slave from the necessity of his ignorance, folly, or wick- 
edness. He denies himself, not to follow Christ in the light of 
His word and spirit, but to follow in darkness guides, blind guides, 
because they are willing to fall into the same ditch. The do- 
minion of moral suasion is in its nature natural, and obedience to 
it can never be free, spiritual, lawful ; in other words, it can never 
be voluntary in a Christian sense. 

In all sovereign dominions, the ruler governs by his law, with 
its sanctions, threatenings and promises. He governs by his ob- 
jective word of command. 

In the kingdom of God His word is the law. In the State the 



42 A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 

word of the Caesar is the law. In the family the word of the 
head of the house is the law. He who is under sovereign law, 
must hear that word and obey it. If, instead thereof, he tests 
the law by his own convictions of mind or conscience as to its 
rectitude, he is actually " not a doer of the law, but a judge." 
He is eating of the tree of his own knowledge of good and evil. 

What the law of a sovereign Ruler is, can never be known by 
the moral feelings or mental judgment of those who are bound to 
obey that law. It can only be known from the express word of 
the sovereign Ruler. That law must be objectively revealed and 
declared, and can never be subjectively discovered. 

Our moral duties to God and men are imposed and declared by 
objective, sovereign laivs, divine or human. Nothing therefore 
can be truly religious or moral, in a voluntary, spiritual, and 
christian sense, that is not the obedience of the heart to the ob- 
jective word of sovereign law, divine or human. In the last 
analysis, it is the obedience of a true and believing spirit to the 
sovereign law of God, the King supreme — to His word of su- 
pernatural objective revelation written down in the Bible. It is 
obedience in spirit and in truth to Him, who is a Spirit and the 
truth, and whose true and spiritual kingdom ruleth over all. 

Man was not made for the Family, for the State or for the 
Church, nor to serve them, but God in and through them. These 
institutes were made for man, for his generation, nurture, educa- 
tion, protection, salvation ; and each ought in its own sphere to 
move, and harmoniously coalesce with the others, for God's glory 
in man's welfare. 

Man was not made for himself, but for his Creator and supreme 
and sovereign Lord ; and no man can appreciate his own personal 
honor, dignity and responsibilities, nor maintain his own inde- 
pendence in the creatures, nor enjoy christian liberty, nor serve 
God with a cheerful, hearty obedience, unless he knows, feels, 
and acts upon these divine principles. 

As to those voluntary societies among men — for religious or 
moral purposes — that are based upon man's pretended philan- 
thropy, enacted by man's wit and wisdom, and according to the 
dictates of man's will, whenever with profane hands they usurp 



A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 43 

authority in affairs over which the individual, the Family, the 
Church, or the State, has lawful jurisdiction, and so come into 
conflict with legitimate authority ; they are in their spirit, prin- 
ciples and action, hostile to the free, wholesome, christian vitality 
and development of the individual, and to the dominion and effi- 
ciency of the divine ordinances ; and by their fruits and in their 
results are actually found to be so. 

In conclusion, we will add a few T words upon " the Golden 
Rule" and its sad perversions. 

With their additions, the golden rule is adopted by many, not 
as the sum and substance, but in the place of, and as a substitute 
for, "the law and the prophets." The rule as stated, added to 
and commented upon by its innumerable worshippers, is after the 
following fashion : 

" Do, " say they, " unto others as you would that they should do 
unto you, ivereyou in their places." This maxim, as it is generally 
received by ignorant men, is a practical subversion of all laws, 
divine and human ; and leaves every man, not only to be the 
law to himself, but also to become the self-constituted master, 
judge, and avenger of his neighbor. It works in the mouths of 
its disciples in this wise. 

Is your neighbor poor and you rich ? divide with him. If you 
were poor and he rich, if you were in his place, would you not 
wish to have him divide with you ? Well, do even so to him, 
give him half, do as you would be done by. If you were a child, 
would you like to be controlled, governed and punished ? put 
yourself in your child's place, and let your own conscience an- 
swer. Would you not like to do as you pleased ? Well keep the 
golden rule, " do as you would be done by," don't restrain or 
govern your child, don't oppress him with your tyranny, let him 
do as he pleases. If you were that poor, homely young woman 
would you not like to marry so fine, handsome, and rich a young 
gentleman as you are ? put yourself in her place, consult your own 
heart and say, whether you would not wish to marry such an one 
even as yourself ? Well, do even so unto her ; work by the 
golden rule and marry the girl. If you were in the place of that 
servant of yours, do you not think you would like to be set free, 



44 A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 

and treated like a son ? Well, give him his liberty, treat him as 
your son, send him to college, work by the golden rule, do as you 
would be done by. 

This is the doctrine and practical commentary inculcated as 
the law of the golden rule, by a certain class of zealous moral re- 
formers, and ardent, self-styled philanthropists. This is their 
master key that rolls back the bolts from the door of moral and 
religious darkness, and opens the room to the light of modern be- 
nevolence and socialism, upon the topics of liberty, fraternity, 
charity and equality. 

To say, do to others as you would that they should do to you, 
were you in their places , is adding to the Scripture : and this ad- 
dition it is, that puts every man's supposed sentiments, feelings 
and desires, in an imaginary change of relations, in the place and 
as a substitute for the law and the Prophets. 

The Scripture readeth thus, all things " whatsoever ye would 
that men should do to you, do ye even so to them, for this is 
the law and the prophets." How would you, who are in subjec- 
tion to civil or domestic law, that your rulers should do to you ? 
Why, that they would deal with you in truth, justice, wisdom, 
equity and mercy ; you would that all men should render you 
your lawful dues. What is just and equal, by civil, by domestic, 
and by God's moral law. How would you, who are invested with 
civil or domestic authority, that others should do unto you ? Why, 
that those in subjection would yield that respect and obedience 
which, by law, divine and human, is your due. Well, do even so 
to others, render to all their lawful dues. " Tribute to whom 
tribute, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to 
whom honor." 

You, who are sick and poor, would wish your neighbors to min- 
ister in love to your necessities. You would want what is due you 
by the moral law. Well, render to others in love what is their 
due by the same law. The force of this precept lies in the co- 
gency of its appeal to every man's reason and conscience, as a 
moral motive to obey the law and the prophets ; and is no new 
law, springing from, tested by and deriving its authority from 



A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 45 

imaginary human sympathies, passions and desires, in hypotheti- 
cal positions and relations. 

What .should a man wish to be done to him ? That his neighbor 
should covet his lawful dominion, honor, riches ? Is that the law 
and the prophets ? to covet your neighbor's house, your neigh- 
bor's wife, his man servant, his maid servant, his ox, his ass, and 
everything that is thy neighbor's ? 

Do the law and the prophets require you to "change places" 
with your neighbor, and make your imaginary wishes if in his 
place, the law for you in yours ? Is the law of coveteousness the 
law and the prophets ? Are men's lusts God's law ? We have 
noticed this monstrous perversion of " the golden rule " because 
it generates that sort of benevolence for the popular philosophy, 
that has banded its disciples together in numerous societies, form- 
ing together the ancient and modern army of invasion in the new 
crusade of socialism, ritualism and pantheism, against the word 
and kingdom of God. A philosophy that has done and is doing 
infinite mischief in the Family, in the Church and in the State, to 
the social, religious and civil welfare of mankind. 

God has, by His word, revealed His own power and wisdom 
for the redemption of men from all their sins and miseries ; and 
to that end has ordained among mankind the social institutions of 
the Family, the Church and the State. Let every man consider 
his own personal, legal relations to God and his neighbour, and 
then his legal relations to the Family, the Church and the State, 
and in the light of God's word perform his religious and moral 
duties as thereby required, and he will work out the problem of 
man's chief end ; he will glorify God and enjoy Him forever. — 
Let all men do so and the millenium comes, the kingdom of God, 
and His will is done on earth even as it is in Heaven. 

The practical annulling of the golden rule, by the additions 
and perversions of human benevolence, affords full scope for the 
zeal and activity of the new and of the old innovators and sche- 
mers in ethics and religion. 

"Doing good" upon the principles of their golden rule, be- 
comes the natural problem of a sinful humanity; for it is "doing 
good" upon man's own principles; his own wisdom, his own pas- 



46 A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 

sions, his own will, determine what is benevolent and philanthro- 
pic ; every man is left at liberty to eat of the tree of his own 
knowledge of what is good and what evil, and to do what is right 
in his own eyes, which is his largest possible liberty. A freedom 
that gratifies his pride and malignant passions, by establishing his 
own opinions and will ; as the law to himself and his neighbour ; 
and by breaking the cords of sovereign law, divine and human. 

A christian man is called to hear, that he may learn what is re- 
ligiously or morally good and evil. He hearkens to the law and 
the prophets, to the word of sovereign law ; and the word of the 
law-giver is his light and lamp to reveal the way of his obliga- 
tions to God and man. 

In the works of a blind and ferocious zeal, though the sub- 
ject of it may be persuaded in his own mind that he is doing God 
service, yet may he be in fact doing the works of Satan. That 
was the case of Saul of Tarsus, when on his way to Damascus to 
" do good" there. 

It is a reflection upon the wisdom and providence of God, to 
affirm that the state of society and the condition and wants of 
men, religiously or morally, may be such as were not foreseen or 
provided for by the Author of the Scriptures. He testifies that 
all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for 
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in right- 
eousness ; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly fur- 
nished for all good works. 

Let men of God, then, be perfect by that rule and standard, 
and they will be of the same mind, of the same judgment, and 
speak the same things. Let them do good unto all men, espe- 
cially to them who are of the household of faith. And if they will 
please God, let them learn from His word what it is that is good 
for them to do, and how to do it. Let them not eat of the tree 
of their oivn knowledge of good and evil. 

This world will have its idols ; but what have christians to do 

with idols ? When any new or old scheme for " doing good " on 

religious or moral principles is proposed, not recognized or sanc- 

ioned by scripture, let us remember that we have a more certain 



A DISCOURSE UPON GOVERNMENTS. 47 

word of prophecy whercunto we do well, if we take heed, as to a 
light in a dark place. 

My sheep, said Jesus, hear my voice, and a stranger will they 
not hear, for they know not the voice of strangers. Vfo hear the 
voice of our Lord and Master in the word of the supreme and 
sovereign law, written in the scriptures, in the laws of the civil 
magistrate, and in the word of the ruler in the family kingdom. 
We never hear the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ in any other 
law or word on earth known among men. Search the scriptures, 
for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which 
testify of me. 

It is not " doing good" to be wise above what is written ; but 
rather to hear the word of God and to keep it. To desire the 
sincere milk of the word that we may grow thereby. 

We are made wise when our hearts burn within us, and when 
we hear the voices of Moses and the prophets, of Christ and His 
apostles, and when our minds are opened to understand the scrip- 
tures. 

AVe will conclude, then, with the saying of wisdom, that the 
sum of the matter in " doing good" is to fear God and keep His 
commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 



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